Research Report · 2026

The Impact Gap:
Enterprise Innovation in 2026

A data-led benchmark of how enterprise organizations are building innovation capabilities, and the structural gap between what they invest and what they can prove.

The Impact Gap 2026 — Enterprise Innovation report cover
Methodology

A structured read of the 2026 innovation landscape.

Built from Qmarkets' Innovation Maturity Assessment — a 25-question diagnostic across four capability areas, scored against the wider innovation landscape and mapped to three maturity tiers.

25
Diagnostic questions
Each scored on a 0–100% scale.
4
Capability areas
Strategy, foundations, program, infrastructure.
3
Maturity tiers
Calibrated against the wider landscape.
5
Funnel stages
From strategy through to scaling impact.
Key Finding

Innovation leaders are failing at execution.

When all 25 diagnostic questions are ranked by average score, the result divides cleanly along a single axis. Every question about culture and ambition scores higher than every question about execution and infrastructure. Intent isn't the problem — it's the operating system underneath.

5 Highest scoring
Culture & ambition
5 Lowest scoring
Execution & infrastructure
Strategic alignment 0%
Executive sponsorship 0%
Customer centricity 0%
Failure tolerance 0%
Decentralized innovation 0%
Integrations 0%
Open innovation 0%
Ideation tooling 0%
Reporting & analytics 0%
Projects & portfolio 0%
No overlap. Every culture question scores higher than every execution question.
45%

of executive-sponsored innovation programs still cannot measure their own impact.

The Impact Gap · 2026
Get the report

See where your organization sits on the curve.

Download your free copy of the report to see where enterprise innovation stands in 2026, and the patterns separating organizations that close the impact gap from those that don't.

  • Three structural findings

    The splits and deficits that define where enterprise innovation breaks down.

  • Three tiers, five capability profiles

    Diagnose where your organization sits — and what defines each profile.

  • A path forward

    Three practical shifts that close the impact gap.

Or take the 7-min assessment →